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GST, Cos Act boost demand for CAs

With increasing regulatory scrutiny and governance standards, the demand for chartered accountants (CAs) to help navigate business is at an all-time high, data from placement records of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) showed. Pay packages, too, have improved as the highest salary in case of international job postings has now doubled to Rs 36 lakh per annum compared to last year.

A total of 3,815 job offers were made to the 6,646 qualified CAs who opted to take part in the placement cycle of ICAI in February-March 2019, up from 1,473 offers received by CAs during 2018. Accenture, Alstom, Barclays Global Services, Flipkart, Amazon, ITC and ANI Technologies (Ola) are some of the companies that hired CAs from ICAI campus placements this time. ICAI said there was high demand for CAs from the banking sector too.

“This placement programme has attracted the highest ever participation from recruiters, offering most positions since the inception of the institute. Education and training at ICAI will ensure that its newly qualified CA professionals have the critical rudimentary sense equipped with a sceptical approach,” ICAI president Prafulla P Chhajed told TOI.

The introduction of reforms like GST and the overall increase in economic activity have increased the demand for CAs in the business world from companies, both big and small. “New reforms in taxation and continuous changes in the Companies Act and rules have prompted enterprises to take a systematic approach to compliance, resulting in increased demand for CAs,” CIEL HR Services director & CEO Aditya Narayan Mishra said.

Out of the 3,180 CAs who accepted job offers, 730 received salary packages of over Rs 9 lakh a year, and 55% landed offers in an annual pay bracket of Rs 7.5-9 lakh. However, average salary packages — at Rs 7.43 lakh — saw a marginal dip on the back of bulk recruitment by few companies.

As many as 139 companies across sectors visited the campus to hire CAs, compared to 130 companies who hired at the placements drive last year. A little over 57% of the CAs who appeared for the sessions were offered jobs, compared to 42% who bagged offers last year.Traditionally, CAs land jobs in enterprises — both off-campus and through ICAI’s placement drives. Up to 9,011 qualified CAs from across the country registered for the current placements session, which was held across 17 centres in the country. ICAI’s placements process first began in 1995 and nearly 30,000 CAs have entered the industry through this route during the years 2006 to 2018, ICAI said. As of July 2018, ICAI had more than 2,82,000 member CAs, with over 7,25,000 students pursuing the course.